iPlayer Beta on Freesat

[david.dakota]

Finally got my arse into gear today and set up iPlayer on the Freesat box. Quick connection by ethernet and ready to go; a few thoughts.

 

Its clear you need at least a 1mb connection, and for that you get a reasonable picture quality. You do get the option, for faster broadband connections, for a higher quality stream and thats obviously the prefered option - of course its not HD or broadcast quality, but its certainly better than some of the less mainstream channels on Freesat/Freeview. Sound is again pretty good -no Dolby Digital, but stereo/pro-logic is fine enough. Overall, its a vast improvement over the iPlayer on both Wii and PS3.

 

Navigation works well, but its pretty slow - probably around a couple of minutes from hitting the Red Button to actually starting to watch a programme; slightly slower than my experience on Virgin Media cable. But given we're on a 2mb ADSL connection, its expected.

 

Should you have one of the Freesat boxes where iPlayer Beta is available, its worth looking into - more convienient than booting up a console or computer. Instructions are here.

 

Hopefully, ITV Player, due to launch in the next few months, will offer a similar experience.